Darley Street: Season Two, Episode Two – Mr Mandal, Garden Guru
By Steve Gray
Previous Episodes
It was Tuesday, Mrs Mac’s day out, she caught up with her sister once a week, who is a suburb away and so it was ‘off to the bus’ on Tuesdays.
Mr Mandal had an idea, he knew that Mrs Mac’s front yard was overgrown and needed work and that she was finding things difficult of late. He chatted to her next door neighbour on one of his walks, the neighbour thought it was a great idea.
Bijay organised a gardener who arrived after Mrs Mac had headed down the street.
It didn’t take long grass cut, edges trimmed and they even cleaned the front windows.
The crew were long gone by the time she came back, tottering up the street, her day was most delightful, her sister always enjoyed catching up, it was her social point of the week.
Mrs Mac stopped at the front gate, checked her mail box and headed down the central path to her front door. She stopped half way, something seemed different? She looked about, the edges had been trimmed on her path… she then noted the grass had been mown!
There was a deep sense of delight for Mrs Mac, but then a question would annoy her for a long time to come, who did it? Sure she had struggled more with her health recently but few people knew about that. She was excited that it was done and it took a load off her mind. She had often thought about getting it done, but she didn’t know where to start.
The local paper took an interest, someone tipped them off, and a photo made the front page ‘Mystery Gardener Does a Good Deed’
The ‘Facey Page’ featured the front page image of Mrs Mac, everyone knew who did it but they all swore to secrecy, just because they could, it was felt that it would add some ‘magic’ into Mrs Mac's life.
There were days when the ‘Old lady of Darley Street’ could be a nuisance, and other days when she could be a delight.
The story in the paper caused a bunch of local garden businesses to take the initiative and offered to do her front yard for free. Mrs Mac liked that idea, but she soon learned they were only in it for the publicity and it didn’t last long. Three free mows and the guys were gone.
Mr Mandal showed up one Tuesday, knowing what time she would head out. He smiled and commented on how good her front yard looked these days. Mrs Mac was polite enough to say thanks, but was soon off down the street to be ready for the bus.
Bijay smiled to himself, he knew that some older Australians had a funny idea about migrants, often forgetting that most of them were once migrants.
His group of Nepalese friends had been warned about this level of thinking and were told to simply smile and move on if faced with rude remarks from people who gave them a hard time.
He had seen the sad side of racism, graffiti that said ‘go home’ etc. he also knew that better times would be ahead if they worked together and found ways to integrate. He would often remind them, ‘Some masterpieces take time.’
In Darley street Mr M was now called the ‘Garden Guru’ which people liked the way it fitted to his ‘cultural heritage.’ It was soon shortened to ‘Guru.’
He liked that the locals had given him a nickname, his wife giggled, ‘Bijay the Guru! You should start giving them words of wisdom.’ He took that idea and used it where he could memorising small snippets of both Hindu and Buddhist wisdom to share where appropriate.
Some of his favourites were - ‘We are all deeply connected.’ - ‘There are things that move forward and things that move back, we get to choose which one we want.’ - ‘Smile! Joy will follow you!’ - ‘Joy and sorrow are equal, and temporary, they will soon pass.’ - ‘Masterpieces take time.’ - ‘The world is one family, we are all part of the greater global village.’
Over time he carried a list of these on his smartphone, if he ran out of his usual ones he could soon find another.
One afternoon Bijay brought one person with him from his community, Bahan, she was in her mid thirties and had an interest in historic documents. She had worked for a while in a museum in Nepal. She soon found an old hindu text in amongst Sally’s multitude of offerings.
She then offered Sally an insight into the Sanskrit text and mentioned the binding and printing techniques used and was able to date the work to within a decade. Sally was most impressed and invited her to drop in on another occasion as she knew she had other books and documents she might be able to help with.
It wasn’t long before Sally and her team were given a few lessons in Hindu, Buddhist and broader Indian regional history and how it fitted to the documents they had accumulated. All this meant she was soon offered a part time job, which she gratefully accepted.
No two days were the same in Darley Street; people come, and people go. This time it was loaded with all kinds of surprises.
Stay tuned for the next episode of Darley Street!
More from Steve Gray
Steve writes with passion and intrigue, aiming to inspire and or raise awareness of topics. His poetry can take abstract turns, and his 'Odd Angry Writes' on his website are sure to turn heads with his aggressive approach to topics.
A background in Art and Design, as well as teaching, often gives his written pieces a unique creative perspective.
Like many, he is an ADHD person with some neurodiverse edges. A bunch of E books under his belt and some honourable mentions in the Geelong Writers Group puts his work in good standing.
